chapters 6 and 7 lecture notes Flashcards
what does mcmullin have to say about agency
- agency and action are interchangable
- the issue she adresses is how to relate action to structure
- she does this through 2 broad camps
1) integrated approaches
2) analytic dualism
discuss the life-course perspective
reintroduces 2 concepts that explain the ebb and flow of poverty as a way to understand inequality
1) social time
- ppl begin the dynamic and contexual aging process at birth
- historical context and time matters
- life transactions are heterogenious and are marked by sequences of events closely tied to social mobility studies
2) substantive birth cohort
- geographic location, class, gender, ethnicity, and race positions into which actors are born into
- generations are used to:
- describe age differences b/c families
- others use it to describe time-specific awareness
ALL OF THIS TO SAY: the process of distribution, production and reproduction are interrelated and organize social activities through a complex interplay of CAGE that creates the condition for survival
- none are determinative on their own
- the processes and connections of CAGE are coordinated through relations of power
how does webber distinguish between actors and social action?
Actors
- meaningful human behavoir
- this is an individuals experience of meaningful action
- experienced through: internal dialogue and external behavior
social action
- action that is meaningful only in relation to another’s behavior
the theory of analytical dualism is discussed by whom?
Margret Archer
recursive relationship b/w opression and power is actualized through integrated approaches. t or F
False -> CAGE
how is agency restricted ?
- limited to those who have the opportunities to do so
who holds a middle ground approach to analytical dualism?
William Sewel
“social structures are comprised by individuals who interact with those structures and can change those structures” this is the definition of ?
Agency
discuss Archer’s analytical dualism
agents and actions are distinct
agents
- collectives sharing the same life chances
- each person is an agent in collectives
- involuntary situated beings
social agency
- the interaction b/w groups can effect social change and stability
actions
- agents and actions are linked by time -> born agents and mature into actors
- actions = choices -> actions conditioned by agency
what does William Sewel talk about?
he uses Gidden’s rules and resources in the duality of structure
- rules are schematic
- they generalize ways of interacting in various contexts
- they are virtual in that they cannot be empirically specified
- recourses are an effect of social schemas (and vise versa)
- structures emerge thorugh this relationship
- there are tensions b/w the virtual and the actual ->
agents have different capacity for action depending on their structural circumstances
- actors draw on a range of schemas and resources producing creativity/change
with regards to actors and agency, inequality is linked to _____
Social Mobility
discuss social inequality
- abstract and concrete dimensions
- abstract through the interplay of agents and structures -> social categories produced and created through structural hiearchies
- concrete through the disadvantages actors experience in their families, workplaces, education, and interactions with the state
what 2 ppl discuss analytic dualism
- bourdieau
- archer
who are the 3 individuals who talk about agency?
- Giddens
- Archer
- mcmullin
“reintroduces two concepts to explain the ebb and flow of poverty as a way to understand inequality”. this is the definition of
life-course perspective
what does archer have to say about analytical dualism
agents and structures not reducable to one another -> boundaries b/w agents and structures
- there is tension b/w Morphogenesis (seeking change) and Morphostasis (status quo)
- creates the tension for response b/w agents and structures
Above introduces time -> it takes time for same sex marriage to be accepted in society
- corporate agents are more able than individuals to affect change -> individuals operate in existing conditions
- empirically this is a very good theory
- to examine the tension b.w groups
what is Gidden’s theory of structuration?
- duality of structure
agents generate structures that are the medium and the outcome
- he uses action and agency interchangeably
Problem: he conflates agency with structure -> this definition does not help us differentiate b/w agency and action
actors live in the social constraints and ideas of social structures. t or f
true
the theory of structuration is discussed by …
Anthony Giddens
what are 2 methods of contestation that speaks to habitus in that structures are no longer unidirectional impositions?
conformity
resistance
what does bourdieau have to say about analytical dualism
Habitus -> middle ground where agents and structures are linked
- a person can only act on what they know and through their personal experience -> this is what organizes social life
he is critical of integrated approaches cuz they conflate agency with structure
- seperate but are linked thorugh habitus
problems:
- unidirectional habitus -> reducing everything to a one-way direction
the life course perspective is part of …
actors and CAGE
the life course perspective relies on concepts developed by previous theorists -> oppression and power. t or f
true
discuss the integrated apporach of structuration theory (giddens)
structures are rules and resources organized as social systems
- rules = norms and practices
- resources = bound to power relations
structures limit and produce actions and structures are a modality of power
- power is detected in relations b/w agents and structure
- agents and structures are mutually constitutive
- modality -> way society organizes itself arond some logic (profit imparative)
discuss the integrated approach of social construction of reality (berger and luckmann)
structure and agency are the same thing.
- Berger and Luckmann structure structure and action in dialectic terms
- structures emerge and are controlled by the individual -> this means that change is the responsibility of the individual
problems
- neglects power in the relationship
- assumes everyone is equally an agent
agency and social action are similar. T or F
True
